condivi

Big words are fine, as long as you don't misuse them. (N.B. "latent" means "present but not visible" or "existing in the unconscious but potentially able to be expressed," not "full of")

You can expect to hear by late march/early april if you get in. If you're rejected, you might not hear anything till may. As for your professor, you should send him a gentle reminder email. It's his job to get recommendations in on time.

Let's not carried away here. The GRE is important, but it's not that important in the grand scheme of things. It's hardly representative of the kind of work one does in grad school, and, of all the parts of a student's application, it's probably weighed the least by admissions committees. And hey, some people are just bad test takers! A phd in art history is a big commitment, but *and maybe it's just me* there seems to be some condescension towards this woman because she has a child. I'm not a woman, nor do I have children, but I do know women with children face quite a bit of discrimination in academia. Let's not encourage that here.

Your work and your ideas are what committees care about. Internships are nice, but they only go so far in helping your development as a scholar; professors realize this. You're not applying to college--extracurriculars for grad school are less important in the grand scheme of things. So do what makes you happy as far as summer work is concerned, or pick up a foreign language, and above all read a lot and figure out what kind of intervention you might want to make in the field so you can write an intelligent, focused personal statement and writing sample. As far as teaching photography goes, I think it can only work in your favor. It shows you have an intimate understanding of the medium, not to mention teaching experience.

I have to say this doesn't look remotely 16th-17th century to me. My guess is that it's Roman....we probably don't know who made it.

I would agree with most of what Shelley has to say, but I would caution you NOT to get a PhD in Europe if you hope to land a job as a professor or curator in the US, regardless of your field (an MA is a different story). It's not a question of the quality of the programs, but the academic culture of European universities. European professors don't write the kind of letters of recommendation that American ones do, and that will put you at a distinct disadvantage come job-searching time. Fair or not, you will be an outsider coming from a European university, without the same contacts or networks as your American peers. Take a look at where faculties members at various American art history programs got their degrees, and they will be invariably be from American universities. Only the cream of the crop from Europe get jobs in the US, and that's usually only after working their through the system in Europe. Similarly, if you're an American citizen, you can forget getting a job in Europe, even with a European degree, unless your specialty is American art.

Hi sdavid13, First of all, you sound like you stand a very good chance of being admitted to a PhD program, so don't get discouraged! As for your questions: 1) Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Pitt, and Johns Hopkins all sound good for contemporary art. You might also want to check out Harvard, Yale, CUNY, and some of the UC's. 2) You can certainly switch fields once you get to grad school--in fact, it happens all the time. That's what coursework is for, in part. But when you write your personal statement, you should focus on one proposed area of study, and it should be something you're strong in and have done lots of research in; you could mention, briefly, your side interest in baroque Rome, especially if it ties in any way to your main interests and it improves your case to go to the school you're applying to (i.e., there happens to be an eminent scholar of baroque Rome on the faculty, in addition to the main professor(s) you want to work with). Once you enroll, you can explore other fields and even change fields. With that in mind, you should make sure to apply to schools that have strong people in both your fields. Don't forget also that some schools have the option of a secondary field. 3) There is little difference between pursuing a degree to become a professor or a curator--both need PhDs in art history, and, especially during your first years of course work, you'll be doing the same kind of work. Once you get to the dissertation-writing phase, your chosen path might affect the kind of subject and methodology you work on, but not necessarily. If you are interested in becoming a curator, though, you should try to get as much museum experience--interning at museums, working with curators, writing catalogue entries, even curating shows--as you can while pursuing your degree. Typically, you don't need a PhD to work in a gallery or auction house. 4) I know you say you don't want to take a gap year, but I would highly recommend it. A year off will help you mature, refocus, and even refine your research interests. If you need to work on a foreign language--say, Italian in your case--this is a perfect time to do it. 6+ plus years of school is trying for even the most motivated students--if you go straight from undergrad that's 10+ years of school work with no break (not to mention high school and before). Taking a year off will not only help you avoid burn out--trust me, I've seen it happen--but will also help you become a better scholar. Hope that helps!

You should definitely apply to PhD programs if that's what you ultimately hope to do. Almost every top PhD program is fully funded, and most Masters programs are not, and you don't want to go in to debt getting a higher degree in the humanities if you don't have to--it just doesn't make financial sense. Also, since you're older, going straight to a PhD will allow you to finish more quickly. If you don't get into a PhD program, then, yes, do a Masters program and improve your credentials (which, by the way, sound good already). As for your worry about a bruised ego--well, I can only say you might as well try to develop a tougher skin now, because there's a lot of competition in this field, and the prospect of failure will continue to haunt you throughout your career (the prospect of not getting a fellowship, of not getting a job, of not getting tenure, etc.). Getting a PhD in the humanities requires a certain amount of fortitude, and you don't want to miss opportunities and get into debt at such an early stage of your career because you're worried about feeling bad about yourself.

sounds promising to me--you're definitely in the ballpark. a lot will depend on how well you articulate your interests in your personal statement and demonstrate your scholarly potential in your writing sample. gre scores don't really matter that much--and yours are fine--so i wouldn't worry about it too much.

And when I say "why," I mean: Why is what you want to study important? What is its broader relevance to issues in art history and even in the humanities more generally? How is your perspective different from those who have come before you? What gaps do the questions you want to ask fill? I want to emphasize the your interests can remain questions at this point--you haven't been studying art history long enough to have developed full answers yet. But these questions need to be thoughtful and somewhat original. Your writing sample, moreover, should address some of the questions you raise in your personal statement, with your "first stabs" at answers developed around and from specific example(s)/object(s).

I don't think publishing is necessary for admission to a top program. In my program, almost no one came in with publications, and in fact most of the faculty encourage us not to think about publishing until after we reach candidacy. The important thing (besides grades, which you can't do much about anyway) is to have a coherent, well-developed (though not too specific, either) sense of what you want to study-- and, most importantly, why you want to study it. If you can't articulate that, you probably won't gain admission to a top program.

Yeah, I don't think so. I think most people would say Harvard is at least in the top 5.